Former Wife, Future Wife and Dinner at Eight

Writer Gail Sheehy was Clay Felker's third wife. The two met in 1967 while Felker was editor over at the New York Herald Tribune.

At the time of Felker's passing, Sheehy wrote about the time she first met Felker. He was yelling at someone on the phone trying to get tickets to the Broadway play, Dinner at Eight starring then-wife Pamela Tiffin for Senator Jacob Javitz.

Playbill for the 1967 Broadway revival of Dinner at Eight.  Pamela's co-stars included Walter Pidgeon and her One, Two, Three cast mate Arlene Francis.

GAIL SHEEHY, writer, married to Clay Felker. 

The first time I laid eyes on Clay, he was yelling on the phone. Something unusual. I dared to walk down the back stairs at the Herald Tribune Women’s Department, which was a flamingo-pink ghetto. But I had a story idea. And the only way to do it was to go and talk to Clay. So I was quite terrified. But then when I heard him and saw him, he was very big. And he had a huge voice, which just, you know, sliced right through me. And he was yelling at somebody about tickets to Dinner at Eight for Senator Javits and his wife. He was just like a creature from another planet to me. But totally intriguing. It wasn’t like, you know, I fell madly in love with him. I was just magnetized by him and scared of him.